


You Drool When You Sleep

by PagebyPaige



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Fluff, Idiot!Percy, Oneshot, Snarky!Annabeth, Soulmates AU, but somehow mostly canon compliant wtf, i quote rick riordan a few times, this could be a chaptered fic I'm not sure yet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-29 17:25:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11445564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PagebyPaige/pseuds/PagebyPaige
Summary: "You drool when you sleep.""What?"





	You Drool When You Sleep

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, to sophie since she inspired this and to sayuri since she loves these dorks as much as I do and deserves some fluff.
> 
> I can't believe I'm really posting this. The very first time I ever read fanfiction, I discovered a 43 chapter percabeth fic on wattpad. Everything spiraled downward from there. As I read fics, I told myself "I could never do this, I'd butcher it" and truth be told, I probably did. This is the second hardest thing I've ever posted, right there after my first fic. Every time I proofread this, I mentally compare it to Rick Riordan's writing. I know that's a standard I'll never live up to, so here I am trying to ignore my self criticism and post my first fic in pjo, which was my first fandom, my first ship, and my introduction to fanfiction. Tell me if I fucked up.
> 
> Enjoy!

Percy Jackson woke up at three in the afternoon in the car with his mother, halfway home from Montauk. Stretching out the soreness in his joints from the uncomfortable sleeping position, Percy looked around. When he saw his left forearm, he nearly screamed.

Now, Percy and his mom had done some weird things together, but he highly doubted that Sally Jackson would let her 12-year-old son get a tattoo, especially one that he didn't remember. And yet, there on his arm in neat but gracefully curving script were the words, you drool when you sleep.

And of all the things to get tattooed, this! Why, Percy couldn't imagine, would anyone get that tattooed on their forearm.

"Mom," he asked carefully. "Why do I have a tattoo?" Percy braced himself for hysteria - screaming, ranting, general freaking out - but Sally stayed impressively calm.

"Have you never seen mine?" Sally asked, completely placid, as Percy stared on, dumbfounded. Of course he'd seen the simple tattoo of a trident tattooed on the otherwise untainted skin of her her wrist - she'd told him it was a tribute to his father who was lost at sea when he was young.

"Of course I've seen your tattoo, Mom, but why do I have one?" Percy asked, still clueless.

"Around the time I met your father, this appeared on my wrist. I've never actually gotten a tattoo, you know." Sally was still smiling gently.

"But then... how-?"

"I don't know, honey. I really don't."

"I don't get it, Mom. How does this just... happen?" Percy couldn't wrap his head around the concept.

"I've learned to just live with it, bud. It's never hurt me."

"I don't-"

"Shush," Sally put a finger to her lips. "Let's just enjoy the rest of our trip, hm?"

Percy knew this meant drop it, so he did. He did, however, run the pads of his fingers over the tattoo, back and forth, musing about why.

\---

"Chiron?" Annabeth peeked her head around the door of Chiron's study.

"Yes?"

"Can I come in?" Annabeth received a curt nod and eased her way through the doorway, well aware by now of how the hinges creaked.

"Yes?" Chiron lifted his head from the book he was reading, wary of the ceiling as he stretched.

"I just noticed that there's now a word, tattooed onto my forearm?" She lifted her arm up, displaying the tattoo of the word what? in blocky letters on her tan forearm.

"The time is near..." Chiron said wistfully.

"For what?"

"You see, becoming a god is not the only sure path to immortality. A select few people every few centuries will receive an inscription such as yours that contains the first words their life partner, 'soulmate,' if you will, will say to them. A life with said person is endless." Annabeth simply gaped. "It seems, my dear, that - though I cannot disclose much - your soulmate won't be the brightest."

"Not until I get a hold of them," Annabeth said with determination. Chiron just smiled.

"It won't be long," he informed her.

"How do you know?"

"Those tattoos only appear when the meeting is near. And don't bother trying to prepare: you'll never expect it." With that, Chiron shooed her out and went back to his reading. Annabeth, in turn, went back to Cabin 6 and flopped down onto her bunk to think.

That didn't last long - it never did, so it wasn't but a few moments until Annabeth was hacking away at the straw dummies with a dagger in one hand and a sword in the other. Chiron came and found her surprisingly soon, bidding her follow him to the Big House. Annabeth obeyed and found herself walking in upon a dark-haired boy whose consciousness level was dubious at best. She looked at Chiron expectantly, and he nodded ever so slightly.

He opened his eyes and looked blearily up at her.

\---

When Percy opened his eyes, he looked up and saw "a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's." As she stared down at him, haloed in fluorescent light, he passed out again.

\---

After anxiously waiting for what might as well have been hours, Annabeth was finally met with the confused-looking, dark-haired boy she was destined to be with. Suddenly, the word on her arm made much, much more sense. It didn't make it any less disconcerting, though. Because of this, Annabeth wasn't feeling particularly kind when they were finally introduced.

"You drool when you sleep." She told him, her tone firm and just the tiniest bit haughty. Then, she ran off down the hill, not bothering to look back and see the dumbstruck look on his face when he finally matched up her sentence with the words she knew would be written somewhere, permanently, on his body.

\---

"'Percy,' he said. 'Did your mother tell you nothing?'" Percy looked dumbly at Chiron, still trying to piece together why the first thing the pretty blond girl had ever said to him was written on his arm. Chiron looked at him sympathetically, and said, "Go find Annabeth, I suspect she'll want to talk to you."

"Yes sir, but, uh, where do I find her?"

"Try the arena, but be forewarned, she's not the most friendly when she's practicing," Chiron advised with a chuckle and sent Percy on his way.

When Percy finally arrived at the arena and found the blond girl - Annabeth - hacking away at what looked like a scarecrow wearing armor with what looked like a dagger, he was indeed scared.

Annabeth called out to him without turning her back.

"Took you long enough, I'm waiting for the rest of my life here," she snapped.

"What?"

"And there we are, just going and proving it." Annabeth returned to obliterating the poor straw man.

He cautiously approached, and from a safe distance called, "You wanted to talk to me?"

"Or chop your head off, I'm not sure yet," she replied coolly, still slicing away.

"Please don't," Percy said, nervous. "I was just wondering if you knew what this means." He held out his arm, stretching it out awkwardly until she turned around and jogged over to - begrudgingly - examine his forearm.

"Do you really not know?" Her tone was mostly incredulous, but patronizing enough to make Percy want to slap himself.

"No..." He still didn't know what he was supposed to know, after all.

"Gods," she muttered. "This is crazy."

"What's crazy?"

"Okay," Annabeth sighed, sounding annoyed. "Listen up."

Percy listened intently, leaning on the fence of the arena as Annabeth explained the rare phenomenon of soulmates, and also the tattoo thing. After she was done, his jaw hung open.

"So, we're supposed to be... together... forever?" Annabeth nodded boredly. "And if we are, we don't die?"

"Mmhm."

"And you're... okay with this?"

"Dealing with it."

"So, you're stuck with me."

"If I want to live."

"Well then for the record, my first thought about you was that I really like your eyes." Annabeth tried, and mostly succeeded, to hide her grin and the blush that graced her tan cheeks.

"Sorry, then, that my first thought was 'what a floundering dumbass,'" Annabeth's tone lacked expression, but there was a hint of a smile tugging against her lips. She leaned across the fence and kissed him quickly, on the lips, and then turned and sprinted back to the center of the arena, ripping viciously into a new straw man. Percy took that as his cue to leave before he was next. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos appreciated as always. Bookmarks make me feel special.


End file.
